Only once in my more than three decades as a journalist have I been asked to demonstrate my knowledge about a subject before someone would let me interview them about it.
It happened one day in late April 2017. I was sitting in my Williamsburg office after lunch when local horse enthusiast Phillip Perkins stopped by my office.
Phillip told me he had a good story to tell me about the Kentucky Derby, but first I had to demonstrate to him I knew something about horse racing.
Fortunately, I know a little something about the sport.
I told Phillip I knew the first leg in the Triple Crown of horse racing was the Kentucky Derby. At the time due to the gate size, there would be no more than 20 horses in the race. (The gate is a bit larger now.) Often because of late scratches there would usually be 18-20 horses run in the race.
The next race in the Triple Crown is The Preakness. It is also the shortest of the three Triple Crown races. There are usually 12-14 horses in this race. This includes a handful, which ran in the Kentucky Derby.
The final leg of the Triple Crown is The Belmont, which is the longest of the three races. It is not uncommon to have 8-12 horses running in this one. There are also usually a handful of horses in this race, which ran in the Kentucky Derby too.
After hearing me say all this, Phillips’ response was along the lines of, “Ok. I’ve got somebody here that knows something about horse racing.”
(Fortunately, he did not require much more knowledge as I was approaching the extent of what I knew…LOL.)
Phillip explained he would be attending his 70th consecutive Kentucky Derby the upcoming Saturday. He then went on to tell me the story of how he attended his first Kentucky Derby when he was 12 years old. Phillip and his older brother, Edgar Perkins, hitchhiked to Louisville to see it.
The duo arrived at Churchill Downs in time for the first race.
“There was an old man holding a wooden ladder against a brick wall that separates Central Avenue from the racetrack. He said, ‘Come on boys. Give me $1 a piece and I will let you climb the ladder.’ Man, I’m telling you they were going up the ladder like nobody’s business,” Perkins recalled.
“Some people sat down on a concrete ledge up there. Some people jumped over to the other side and went over into the infield or wherever they wanted to go. This was 1948. They didn’t have all that security that they do now.”
Before the boys could climb up, two policemen came along carrying two big nightsticks and told the old man, he couldn’t have that ladder up there.
“He was, ‘Oh, yes sir! Yes sir!’ He grabbed that ladder and he laid it down long ways against the wall,” Perkins recalls. “They didn’t take 10 steps until that old guy had that ladder back up against the wall.”
The old man ended up letting the two boys climb the ladder for $1 total.
“We had the best seats in the house. We could see all around the racetrack,” Perkins said.
The winner was Citation, who remained Perkins favorite Derby winner.
By 1952, Edgar Perkins had gone off to the Korean War and would not be attending the Derby.
He encouraged Phillip to go anyway.
“He wrote me a letter in 1952. He said, ‘Now you have a string going. Don’t break it.’ He said, ‘Just be careful. You can hitchhike by yourself. Go see the Derby,” Phillip recalled.
In 2017, Perkins’ Derby Day attire grew to include a sports coat with the names of every Kentucky Derby winner since 1875 embroidered on it.
It was a present from his grandson, Cody Perkins, and his wife, Sarah. It was one of his most prized possessions.
Tammy Distiller, a former student of Perkins, spent three months embroidering the coat with the name of each Derby winner.
The names of most Derby winners are embroidered in black thread.
Triple Crown winners, those few horses that have won The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont, are embroidered in gold.
Phillies or female horses, who won the Derby, have their names embroidered in pink. Geldings are embroidered in green. Only nine geldings have won the Derby.
Phillip died on May 19 at the age of 91. His streak of attending consecutive Derbies ended at 75 around the time of the pandemic.
When I think of the Kentucky Derby, I will probably always think of Phillip. He was a walking encyclopedia of Kentucky Derby and horse racing knowledge. He was always fun to talk with, especially around Kentucky Derby time.
He will be missed.
Before I conclude this column, let me say congratulations to Whitley County Superintendent John Siler, who recently received an Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) – Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative (CKEC) Superintendents of the Year “Experience Excellence” Award.
When Siler was first named Whitley County Superintendent in 2018, I expected him to do great things. It is good to see him succeed, and I expect more great things from him.
